Equally Obnoxious Hockey Trash Talk Thread, eh?

[arturo7]

Replacement players, good idea.

Bring on the scabs!!

 

[paulster2626]

Toronto would have the best players in the league if they brought in replacements. Man, everyone and their uncle would show up to try to win a Cup here. The Habs would be pretty damn good, too.

Leafs would totally win though, since that particular season wouldn't "count" among the true hockey purists. Such is our luck.

 

[Beer-lord]

If you want to sign a petition to give Goodell the boot, you can here:
http://signon.org/sign/roger-goodell-resign

 

[emjay]

If you want to sign a petition to give Goodell the boot, you can here:
http://signon.org/sign/roger-goodell-resign

I can't imagine a more futile action.

 

[paulster2626]

If you want to sign a petition to give Goodell the boot, you can here:
http://signon.org/sign/roger-goodell-resign

Will this bring back hockey? Cause I really don't give a flying F about the NFL or its referees.

 

[arturo7]

Football is for drunken, brainless mouth breathers with a short attention span.

 

[emjay]

Football is for drunken, brainless mouth breathers with a short attention span.

Meh. I'm not going to bother signing it, but I enjoy it largely for the tactical aspect. Yes, a big part of its fan base are hopeless rednecks, but that doesn't mean it's a bad sport. Hell, NFL Quarterbacks have a higher average IQ than any other position in any other professional sport, and for a team to even have a hope of succeeding requires more high-level strategic and tactical thinking. Without intending to be too hyperbolic, it can almost be like chess in motion, depending on how one watches it.

Hockey is by far my favorite sport, but that doesn't mean that I have to insult fans of others I genuinely don't like to watch - e.g. soccer, baseball, and especially basketball... the latter of which truly does require the attention span of an aborted goldfish fetus. Speaking of which, how a sport that is as fast paced as hockey requires a longer attention span than a game that has so much downtime between every play and takes so long just to move the ball to the other end of the field is beyond me.

 

[HoppyDaze]

Football is for drunken, brainless mouth breathers with a short attention span.

yeah, hockey is for the scholars...

 

[MeatyPortion]

The might as well just lay down some shag carpet and wood paneling on the nhl website given all the vintage content. Looks like an antique mall.

http://www.nhl.com/

 

[paulster2626]

The might as well just lay down some shag carpet and wood paneling on the nhl website given all the vintage content. Looks like an antique mall.

http://www.nhl.com/

It's from a time when they didn't strike or lockout every 7 years. This sucks.

Also the NFL wouldn't be 1/4 as popular as it is now if it weren't for the 100% focus on betting. That's all the sport is about - betting. Turn on the sports channels - they spend 20 minutes talking about who's going to win and if they will cover the spread. Then they sit around and talk about who to pick up in your fantasy pool for 10 minutes.

Hockey just seems more *pure*, if that makes any sense. As is baseball. There just isn't this obsession with betting and making money, rather an obsession with one's favourite team and the unity amongst fans.

 

[copyright1997]

Hockey just seems more *pure*, if that makes any sense. As is baseball. There just isn't this obsession with betting and making money, rather an obsession with one's favourite team and the unity amongst fans.

Except for when I'm in Vegas.

 

[MeatyPortion]

 

[emjay]

Hockey just seems more *pure*, if that makes any sense.

To me, it's about the grit required. Hockey is a rough and exhausting sport. So is football, no doubt, but those pansies can't even play more than once a week. 16 regular season games?!?! NHL teams can play twice that much in just the 4 grueling playoff series alone.

 

[paulster2626]

To me, it's about the grit required. Hockey is a rough and exhausting sport. So is football, no doubt, but those pansies can't even play more than once a week. 16 regular season games?!?! NHL teams can play twice that much in just the 4 grueling playoff series alone.

Hockey players must also play for a full 60 minutes divided up between the 23 of them on the bench.

Football players? They play a total of 12 actual ball-in-action minutes, and there's about 50 of them. Pansies.

 

[dudius]

Hockey players must also play for a full 60 minutes divided up between the 23 of them on the bench.

Football players? They play a total of 12 actual ball-in-action minutes, and there's about 50 of them. Pansies.

On top of that, average players play 10 minutes per game while some can play as many as 20. And worse, you have goaltenders spending three periods in a hot heavy suit while sharpshooters whip a 100mph slapshot at them.

 

[arturo7]

The hockey press is reporting that The Great One is optimistic that the season will start in January.

Uhh..., how is that optimistic? Are they just trying to soften the blow?

 

[Boleslaus]

The hockey press is reporting that The Great One is optimistic that the season will start in January.

Uhh..., how is that optimistic? Are they just trying to soften the blow?

Well I guess when many players are coming out saying that they can easily see the lockout lasting all year it is the optimistic view. Sounds like its just a pissing match with neither party wanting to lose. I wonder what kind of reception those NJ Senator's letter got from the two sides?

http://blog.northjersey.com/meadowlandsmatters/3685/nj-senators-to-nhl-end-the-lockout/

 

[arturo7]

That letter was likely sorted to the round file. I don't think either side gives a flying **** about the "little people."

 

[dudius]

The hockey press is reporting that The Great One is optimistic that the season will start in January.

Uhh..., how is that optimistic? Are they just trying to soften the blow?

Here's what I'd love to see in place of the cancelled season. Allow the 16 players who have played the most years in the NHL to be team captains and they pick teams schoolyard-style. Give them two weeks to practice, then play 3 games a week between now and May. At the end of the season, play a tournament with rounds consisting of one game. One round overtime, shootout to follow if still tied. Losers play in a power's bracket. Championship round is best of five. Winners get hats and tee shirts that say "I survived the 2012 NHL lockout" and get a sponsorship deal with Arbys restaurants. Have the whole thing sponsored by unpopular fast food brands and Shamwow. Hire Gilbert Godfried and Betty White to commentate. Air it all on ESPN2. And if ice rinks can't be used for games then trade the ice skates for roller skates and play in parking lots.

 

[arturo7]

I like everything but the shootout.

 

[dudius]

How about we amend it to remove the shootout, add infinite rounds of overtime. Rounds are five minutes long and for between each round they need to have a beer chugging relay race. Teams can choose their own order but the whole team needs to participate. Chugging rules: at the whistle, first player from each team begins chugging a pint of beer. When a player finishes and sets down his cup, the next player must begin and so on. team which wins chug off starts with a 30 second power-play.

 

[krenshaw]

can we buy tickets for these events? i'll offer up my local hockey rink to be used

 

[arturo7]

The first 2 weeks of the season have been cancelled. It is the beginning of the end.

**** hockey

 

[dudius]

Luckily I live in a college town with a pretty good hockey team (Ferris State played Boston College in the finals last season). Guess I'll have to skip work and go to games to get my hockey fix.

 

[Homercidal]

Luckily I live in a college town with a pretty good hockey team (Ferris State played Boston College in the finals last season). Guess I'll have to skip work and go to games to get my hockey fix.

+1. Only thing missing is the beer stand.

Isn't the start of Bulldog Hockey right around the corner?

 

[Homercidal]

Yep. Exhibition starts this Sunday. Griffins starts on Saturday, but they are away. First home game for the Griffins is next Friday.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Michael Rosenberg writes on SI.com:

this is the very definition of failure of leadership and ownership and stewardship and everything-ship. Take a league trying to puck-handle its way back into the top level of sports leagues in this country and call off another partial or whole season? Outstanding business choices, boys! Why not just send obscenity-filled personal letters to all the fans you’ve been desperately trying to extract money from? It’s much simpler.

I totally agree. Despite record earnings for the league and infinitely more TV coverage in the US than before, the people in charge of the NHL and it's franchises are complete and utter morons. Starting with Bettman on down to each and every pseudo-businessman team owner. Not to mention the PA....
The league for expanding or moving teams into markets where they had to know that failure of the franchise was inevitable (Phoenix, Atlanta - which they may have fixed, Nashville, St. Pete, etc.).
The PA for crying over what amounts to ~3% of revenue. For blocking seemingly intelligent (I know that's a stretch of the term) restructuring of conferences. And for immediately tucking tail and becoming scabs in the Euro elites instead of insisting that the two sides continue to negotiate a new CBA.
Last, but not least in this, the owners for being greedy little f***s with pipe dreams on an NFL type league. $hit guys, hockey's not even "NFL popular" in Canada, get off it and pay your employees.

All that said, like most of us I'll get my hockey fix by watching some of the great amateur hockey here in MN until after this cr@p is over. And then, like most of us, I'll happily tune in to watch the return of my favorite sport being played by my favorite team in my favorite league. As much as it sucks, all we can do besides bitching is to bend over, flash and upside-down smile between out collective ankles and take it

 

[jtkratzer]

I have no problem with the players playing elsewhere. It solidifies the point that the owners and league don't own the players and the NHL is based on the talent of the players and nothing more. We don't watch the NHL or go to games for the concessions or swag or giveaways, we go to watch the players.

The owners and league can sit around all self righteous like with their doors locked, but no games means no ticket sales, concessions, parking, and every other revenue producing sale.

I get the financial side, but at what point does damaging the integrity or reputation of the league and canceling seasons become less important than ideals and a few percentage points?

Players are going to make money playing anywhere they want, probably not NHL money for the most part, but they're still getting paid to play a game and not working some sh*t job like minor league baseball players do during the off season.

 

[dudius]

Honestly I'd love to see the NHL players play elsewhere. Who knows, maybe they'd manage to create a new league with better rules about everything and then we wouldn't have to worry about lockouts. The thing that I hate most is they had a seven year deal and just now things are "being done about it" (read "no season and no talks about anything that would make any progress toward starting a 2012/2013 season"). It just sucks the players had a ****ty representative last time, so the owners have a lot of leverage to begin with, because hey they can just have a lockout and get everything they wanted just like last time.

 

[rjwhite41]

I didn't give a second thought to anyone playing overseas until I watched the KHL game last night on ESPN2 and Barry Melrose (I know, I know) started talking about how the low level guys can't go do that. The guys making league minimum (you know, the guys who actually depend on these paychecks) can't just get a job in Europe or Russia. They have to tough it out with no income coming in while the guys getting millions get paid slightly less millions during the lockout to play elesewhere. I actually agreed with Melrose, that's not solidarity in my eyes. Ovechkin doesn't care if the lockout lasts a year, he's got a job. By the way, did anyone see his goal last night? What was that crap?

Lastly, may we suggest you remove your hat for a moment of silence for the legendary Budd Lynch. You will be missed at the Joe. RIP.